So how'd yall do? I couldn't make it out this mornin but I'll be out there blasting my #6 shot at em this afternoon and evening.
This weather we've been havin is not for ducks but hopefully they'll be a few around to shoot, well I wish you all the best of luck.

Didn't go out either. 3 days of hard scouting revealed 0 ducks. They say there are 200-400 and I talked to the guy who did the bird count and he told me where to look, but they weren't there yesterday either. My little brother shot the crap out of doves this morning though.

whistlin_wings wrote:I grew up in a neighborhood with only 3 pools and a public golf course. Thug life is all I know.

i havent seen flock nor feather of anything yet... not even dove. Too warm of a year (dang global warming and tropical storms and whatever else is causing this) Last year some friends and i shot 70 dove from a field near my house but i only saw about 5 there this whole year. maybe we killed em all? Dunno for sure but post something if you see some ducks or geese flyin.

I arrived at the check in on opening morning at 5:10 a.m. The first guys in line came down from Johnson County the night before and spent the night in their minivans and shiny Explorers. There were probably 80-100 in front of us in the check in line.

We put in at the boat ramp, and set up near the middle of the marsh, next to an old boat blind. The water level was at 100%, which translated to nearly chest deep on me (6'2") and about 2 feet deeper than last year. It was a good thing that we had made extensions for our Robo Ducks, or they would have been left in the boat. We set up facing west (into the 15 - 20 mph wind), with 6 dozen G&H magnums, a couple of Bigfoot Canada floaters on the south side, and a few dozen teal decoys to the north of the spread.

At first light, a few teal buzzed us (as usual), but it was not yet legal shooting time. About 5 minutes before legal time, some of the Joco's starting skybusting at unidentifiable big ducks that were circling the perimeter. That set off a panic of woodies from the willows on the west end of the marsh, and all that we could do was listen to the idiots continue to skybust and watch the woodies, teal and later gadwall circle and re-group until legal shooting time.

There were a lot of birds flying from 7:15 - 9:30, but they were panicked from the almost continual barrage from the Jocos lining the edge of the marsh. We would get a few flights working our calls and decoys when more shots would ring out and the ducks would flare. We finally dropped a couple of gadwall drakes and a greenwing teal hen, but they were all relatively long passing shots.

We did see a variety of ducks. The majority were gadwall and teal, but we also saw some blue bill, a few mallards, shovelers and wood ducks. We saw a pintail drake, and a mottled duck as well. We ended up turning the Robos off early, as they seemed to cause the birds to flare.

There was a huge raft of coots in the marsh, probably numbering 3,000 - 4,000. That attracted a lot of the ducks, who simply landed in the middle of the coots throughout the morning. We only saw 2 other groups of hunters knock down 2 birds all morning.

We did see a large flock of white pelicans fly over, and they too were shot at by the Jocos. I guess that they thought they were giant snow geese with big noses and 8 foot wing spans. :laughing: Fortunately, their marksmanship was consistent with their waterfowl identification skills.

I can't say I did much better, but I didn't have to look at another hunter, aside from the guy I went with. I hunt a private pond in the south of Johnson County, about 4-5 acres. Saw more ducks than I expected, mostly gadwall, couple groups of teal, some spoonies, few mallards. Best part of the morning was the sunrise over the dekes. Started the season off nicely with a double of gadwall drakes, but unfortunately, there wasn't much more shooting after that. Let a couple ducks sit in the dekes on two occasions with bigger bunches working, and of course, when DOESN'T that bite you in the arse! Couldn't get back out Sunday - forced to go to that Chiefs game! But overall, for a 3 hour hunt, I saw numbers that were pretty good for this area given the weather and all. Given me some hope and enough incentive to get back out a few times this week (wish it was today!)

Three Gadwalls on Saturday, one shoveler on Sunday. They got call and decoy shy real quick. Saw twice as many birds on Saturday than Sunday. The skybusters already scared the piss out of them. I had a flock of about 30 Gadwalls land just outside of range Sunday morning without calling at all. I hit one little confidence quack to try and get them to swim in to the decoys, but they took off as soon as that tone reached their ears. The hunters 100 yards away were shooting at the damn coots which helped to scare everything else away. The birds were working alot better Saturday morning than Sunday.

By the way, not everyone from Johnson County sucks at duck hunting. I'm from Arkansas and have been hunting for 20 years. Quit pokin'

My girlfriend's dad has a five acre duck marsh. I'm in love. (2008-2009)My new girlfriend's dad is an outboard motor mechanic. I'm in love. (2010-12)My new girlfriend's dad has a lakehouse. I'm in love. (2013-15)F*** it...buying a dog. (2015-death)

Razorback, not all are bad, but they have earned that reputation for a good reason. Saturday we were hunting and there was a guy blowing his brains out on a call flaring birds off of his decoys and ours. I went to retrieve a cripple that was impaled on a tree branch, and told him he may want to scale back his calling cause it was flaring the ducks. I mean he was comp calling. He said f*** you and I just turned and left. They never shot a duck all morning. Oh, I forgot to mention the guys that tried to set up 30 yards behind me.

whistlin_wings wrote:I grew up in a neighborhood with only 3 pools and a public golf course. Thug life is all I know.

razar hey we are just messing around i am sure that there are pleany there that are better hunters than me but it is jsut some time they think they are better than us poor hicks and therefore think they can set up where they plz just becasue they have a call that cost 5 times as much as yours and 5 times and many people and deks as you do even though you may have been there 2 hours ealy wating for the ducks becasue you had scouted the week be4 and knew where the birds where going to be ... but in all truth there are probly people liek that from everywhere and all in all more "GOOD" hunters from joco we just always pay closer attention to the bad ones that are putting as many pellets on you as they are the birds ... opeing day last year... friends dog lost his sight thanks to them shooting right at us after we had told them we where there ... then i found out we were surrounded by them when i go hit in the side of the head and my buddy got hit in the hand... went back to the ramp 5 trucks ours one of my other firends that was on the other side of the lake and 3 more all with JO tags

so when we may seem like we are being **** heads and calling people jocos we are just refering to all the unsafe guys who liek to shoot you and people who blow the call a little to much,

but we are not trying to afend the good hunters around in any way.... would jsut liek to say sorry to razor if i affended him
david

Razor, I got on and set them all straight about us JoCo boys :cool: , and they took me in as their own (after a fair share of the good natured, and I agree, MUCH DESERVED prodding) - and in fact, I have now hunted with some of these folks, and they aren't too bad... For small town hillbillies, of course... :laughing:

They have their points, and living here all of my life, I agree with more of them than I disagree with. It's really more of a type of "character" that SUCKS, not necessarily where they might be from; it just so happens there's a whole sh*tload of these "character" types living up here in JoCo!

Where I am at, I would say most are pretty obnoxious. I am not saying there aren't any good hunters from that area as that would be stupid as hell. I have several guys from up there have hunted with for years and know how to smack ducks. Others from up there just met a few days ago and they shared a blind with me. I think when guys here talk about JOCO's it is much more of a kind of person than where they are really from. There are the same type of guys from SNCO as well but they are just outnumbered by johnson county. Hope no offense was taken. Hell, I am sure there are the same type of obnoxious fellas from CFCO (know who I am talking about Matt?) but due to numbers, JOCO's are more prevalent and therefore more visible.

yeah ... i think is is what they said ... more of a type of person/ hunter than where they are form... there is jsut a whole lot of people form up there to choose from and we need someone to blame our bad bads on... :getdown: